Saturday, February 25, 2006

Saturday Rumination: Frustration

My intention to have something cogent to say about about the state of political affairs has come to nought. Everything I wrote looked like empty sloganeering when I reviewed it on the screen. So I started to think about other things people should be cognizant of. Here's one: There have been some horrible stories about animal cruelty in the last week. It's the kind of thing that is always there, particularly if you have a pretty wide definition of cruelty, but only makes headlines in more spectacular instances. Here is a link to the most recent 1,680 hits at Google News, if you really want to wallow. But if you want to rock, here are some songs that I think do a solid job of conveying general frustration, a mood I think applies to many persons' feelings, whether they be about the current administration, puppy trafficking, you name it.

Some highlights: Westerberg's vocal breakdown in "Hangin' Downtown," when he spits out the line "Anyway, I ain't got no place else to go;" Mould's multitracked vocals on "The Act We Act," perhaps the heaviest post-Husker song he's ever written, delivering the line "and the hours slipping by, as we watch the worlds collide...;" the cacaphonous final two minutes of the Unwound track reminds me that, while many assert the dominance of Unwound's Leaves Turn Inside You over the rest of the Unwound catalog, in our opinion Repetition is their best set of songs.